[soheil]

You should give it back, noticing a domain is expired and registering it is not a hack to be proud of, honestly it's kind of a dick move that anyone with $1.99 can pull off. You're also not teaching anyone any lessons by saying they should have updated their contact info and enabled auto-renewal with the registrar. It's most likely due to a simple processing error or simple administrative mistake neglecting to update their card on file, etc. But take down the public shaming statement from the website and let them take back their domain.

[crummy]

To be fair, it's probably worth registering and then offering it to the original owner at cost to prevent a more malicious user from holding it hostage.

[soheil]

If that was his intention he wouldn't be publicly shaming an entire organization.

[joshuawithers]

My intention is for it to be returned, whilst also sharing an entertaining, and educational message with the community. Don't let your domain names expire otherwise anyone can have them. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[hamburglar]

Eh, that’s exactly what I’d do. Register it, get a LOL out of it, then hand it over. I’d even give it to them for free. It’s funny and it’s harmless and teaches them a lesson with some mild embarrassment.

[learc83]

The “public shaming statement” says explicitly that if someone from the company contacts them, they’ll give it back.

That’s probably the quickest way to get the website back to them.

[notatoad]

Heh. I can only imagine the reaction you'd get if you tried to report to the front-line support staff that their NFC shortlink domain registration had expired.

[Wowfunhappy]

https://transl.in

> If Translink wants to get in touch via email, I'm happy to get this domain name back to them.

(Edit: removed a typo from the quote after the author fixed the original)

[joshuawithers]

You've no idea how much I regret the free apostrophe

[ampdepolymerase]

This "simple administrative mistake" could easily lead to the next SolarWind-style breach in a different setting. A nonchalant attitude towards site reliability engineering is exactly what is not needed.

[aaomidi]

100%